During the 2012 season several planned races were cancelled due to low interest from teams, leading the series to adopt several changes for the 2013 calendar. All race weekends have been shortened to two days, with practice and qualifying on Friday and the race on Saturday. Races have also been shortened from six hours to three. The European Le Mans Series will also share its weekends with several other international racing series, including the FIA World Endurance Championship, World Series by Renault, and FFSAGT Tour.[1]

The entry list for the 2013 season was released on 8 February, and included eleven LMP2 and three LMPC cars, ten LMGTE entries, and five GTC cars, bringing the full grid up to twenty-nine entrants.[2] However only 23 cars turned up for the opening race of the season, the 3 Hours of Silverstone.